APPLICATION OF ULTRASOUND TECHNOLOGY IN THE PROCESSING OF HISTOLOGICAL MATERIAL

The pathological examination is one of the longest in the list of medical tests. Most of this time is spent on preparation for the slide. In addition, part of the chemical reagents needed for processing is not safe for the environment and the personal working in the laboratory. The goal of our project was to develop a new, cost-effective and eco-friendly tissue processing technology by integrating a new hardware component - an ultrasound device - into the processing protocol.

28 experimental protocols were developed to create a new tissue material processing protocol. A selected broad panel of tissues was used for each experiment. 168 autopsy tissue samples with a standard set of organs were used in the examination. Processing was carried out manually under conditions of ultrasonic treatment (UP200HT). All slides were stained with hematoxylin-eosin technology. The quality of the slides was evaluated through 5 points evaluation system by 2 pathologists.

Application of ultrasound technology in the processing of histological material will: reduce processing time and number of reagents required for processing; increase the cost efficiency of processing; remove harmful component xylene from the processing protocol; better preserve tissue antigenic structure at the expense of reduced tissue retention time in reagents.

So, the interdisciplinary use of engineering and medicine will be of great benefit to both the medical staff and the environment, as well as to patients (they will receive better research quality and reduced waiting time for examination results).